I’ve been really looking forward to fishing for chub and barbel on the River Wye and when I had a chance to go for a day, I called into see Woody at his Hereford tackle shop. I wanted to see what river conditions were like and pick up some bait and advice from this river master!
Woody explained that the chub were starting to feed well after recently spawning. Barbel sport was still a bit slow, with many areas on the Wye still showing spawning activity. It’s definitely been a slow start on many of the rivers this year, probably due to the late spring and colder conditions for the time of year.
I decided to fish downstream of Hereford at Fownhope on a private stretch of the river.
Some heavy rain over the previous days had risen the river levels by a couple of feet. The colour was OK, however, and the forecast was good.
I was so excited to be fishing on the Wye for the first time this season, and especially to be back on such a beautiful stretch of the river. I selected a peg near the top of the stretch that’s below some rapids, with good depth close in and a sloping gravel river bed up to the far bank. I know from experience it’s a great area for early season chub and barbel.
Float fishing would be difficult due to the higher river level and the powerful and turbulent flow in this peg. So I decided to focus on feeder fishing to start with, and give the float a try later if the fish are feeding well.
When pleasure fishing, if I can, I always prefer float fishing rivers, but actually really enjoy feeder fishing as well.
The old adage of “think float, fish feeder” really holds true with me and I like to feeder fish in an active way with regular casts and numerous subtle changes to the rig and how I’m feeding.
I selected the 12ft 1.5lb Specimen Rod with a 3oz tip. They are supplied with an Avon top as well, but I wanted the added sensitivity of a quiver tip in this situation, chub can be sneaky!
I love these rods as they are so easy to fish with. They are two piece and therefore easy to set up quickly. This saves time, especially if I’m grabbing a quick session on my local river Salworpe after school! The action is also perfect, with a lovely progressive action and plenty of power in the butt for casting and playing bigger fish.
On this occasion, I didn’t need to cast far, only about 16m out. I wanted to get past the main flow and target an area about 1.5m deep on the gravel bank that shelves up towards the far bank. The peg close in and towards the middle has a very rocky and snaggy bottom, which would make feeder fishing or ledgering very difficult.
When I’m feeder fishing at close range like this, I like to use a simple underhand cast. It’s much more gentle than an overhead cast, as I can almost place the feeder where I want it. To start with, I cast slightly upstream and feel the feeder to the bottom after feathering the feeder into the water. This reduces the splash or “badoosh” when the feeder hits the water and also straightens the hook length and bait, reducing the chance of tangling.
I’m using a large 25g Edge Open End Feeder with extra leads fitted, which makes the total weight 52g. I want the feeder to just hold in position without moving, and will adjust the weight of the feeder to make sure it’s perfect for the river depth and power.
I also pay out some line once the feeder hits the bottom to create a bow in the line. This helps me get away with a lighter feeder than if I tightened up and also enhances the bolt effect with fish often hooking themselves.
Bait wise, I started with an 8 mm pellet as hook bait. I also had some punched luncheon meat and casters / maggots to try if needed. Using bigger baits like pellets and meat is a great tactic in the summer as smaller baits like maggots will often get battered by small fish. I wanted to target the bigger chub and barbel and have great faith in pellets. They are robust, and I can fish with the confidence my bait is intact and not been eaten or fallen off!
The pellets I used on the hook were 8 mm Dynamite Bait Marine Halibut flavour and I fed a mixture of 6 mm and 4 mm Halibut pellets in the feeder plugged with some marine halibut groundbait (50% mixed with brown crumb).
I like to feed pellets through an open end feeder like this when I’m feeding positively. I can also add cubes of luncheon meat or casters, and it’s easy to feed more bait efficiently this way.
The mainline was the reliable and tough 8lb Edge Specimen Mono and I matched this with a 50 cm Edge Pure 0.22 mm Fluorocarbon hook length and a size 16 Preston KKH eyed hook. I like to start with a longer hook length as I think this will help fool the fish. If I’m missing bites or want to make the rig more positive, I’ll reduce the hook length down to 30 / 20 cm.
When feeder fishing on rivers like the Wye, I want to fish with fairly robust gear, the chub, and barbel fight hard in the flow and the rocks can damage finer lines easily.
I made 3 or 4 quick casts with the feeder, just leaving the feeder long enough to empty its contents and hopefully attract some fish into the area.
On the 5th cast I was rewarded with a positive drop back bite and hooked my first chub about 3lb. It fought hard in the flow, and I was careful when playing it to avoid a potential hook pull.
Several chub followed before I hooked my first barbel. This was only about 4lb but gave me a great scrap! I revived it carefully, and it swam away strongly, my first barbel this season!
During the session, I made a few subtle changes to my rig and hook baits.
I changed the length of the hair on my hook to ensure the pellet bait was actually touching the shank of the hook. I had missed a few bites and guessed the sneaky chub were managing to take the pellet but not the hook with a slightly longer hair.
Usually, I like to use a small bait band on the end of the hair. I can pull this through a drilled pellet and trap it with a pellet stop. Or I can switch to a punched meat hook bait and trap it with a piece of spaghetti. Thanks to teammate Brian Rigby for this tip, he showed me when we practiced on the Wye last winter.
As the season progressed, I also tried switching the feeder for a straight lead and cast slightly further down the peg.
This is a great tip if bites dry up and often results in a quick bite and fish, but it’s important to switch back to the feeder to keep the feed going in.
I also changed the pellet hook bait to punched meat and this worked well, catching me another small barbel and my biggest chub.
As I mentioned before, feeder fishing like this is a really active and interesting way of fishing.
What a great session! I ended up with 23 chub and 2 barbel for 40-50lb.
I’m looking forward to getting back on the Wye for some more pleasure sessions and matches when they start again in the Autumn, what an awesome river!
